Just interested if we have any of the numbers to reconstruct what the people that bought books were buying in say the 1640s or something.
I don't know about bestseller lists, but I somewhat accidentally know the general time when bestsellers started happening, and in particular about one novelist who was immensely popular in the late nineteenth century.
When I was writing a thesis about Faustian literature a few years back, I read a Victorian-era book. It was called The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli, published in 1895. It was touted to be one of the first best-sellers (indeed, her official website claims the book "defin[ed] the format of the modern novel," though I'd like to see some objective criticism of that). The general plot revolves around a mysterious and dashing man who sweeps into London society and turns out to be none other than Lucifer himself, banished from the depths of Hell and characterized as a tragic anti-hero we would probably recognize in pulp fiction today – ala Edward Cullen from Twilight or Christian Grey from 50 Shades. I recall the prose being wildly sensationalist, and the themes rather ham-fisted. Oh, there's also a character who is pretty much a self-insert of the author, echoing innumerable of works of internet fanfiction a century plus later.
I loved every second.
I've had a soft spot for Corelli ever since, and her story is an interesting one. She's pretty obscure today, but in her day she was huge – probably because of the sensationalist nature of her writing I mentioned above. She was simultaneously loved and hated; adored by the masses, but poo-pooed by the literary elite. This was an era when most author circles were focused on producing high literature, before your J.K. Rowlings and your Stephen Kings, so I imagine her popularity was probably pretty vexing to some.
She was also rather prolific. She wrote 25 novels from 1886 to 1924 and several short stories and non-fiction pieces. I was able to find a review of The Sorrows of Satan circa its year of publication, which references a previous novel, Barabbas. That novel appears to be an attempt to paint the character in the gospel story – who was saved from crucifixion in the place of Jesus – in a sympathetic light. I find it interesting that a lot of tropes that are popular today (it seems like every time I turn around there's another retelling of a classic tale from the eyes of the villain, like Maleficent) were used by Corelli to great effect as well. Her works often had a supernatural bent to them, probably capitalizing on the Victorian era fascination with the occult, but that's just a guess. But again – we only need to look to modern examples to see that such subject matter is still popular today.
Here is an excerpt from the review of The Sorrows of Satan, predicting the popularity of the book:
"The Sorrows of Satan" is a book that will probably be as successful as "Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a robber in the old time, but in these latter days he is the hero of Marie Corelli's last romance but one, in which capacity he achieved a quite phenomenal success. The book setting forth his manifold virtues was translated into an indefinite number of languages, and has sold to the tune of some seventy thousand copies. When I say that "The Sorrows of Satan" is likely to equal the success of "Barrabas," I am making a somewhat bold statement, but I make it advisedly, and the reason for the faith that is in me is as follows:— (453)
This is followed by a long review – some ten pages' worth of two columns and tiny print – that basically recounts the entire book (maybe no one cared about spoilers back then?). At the end, the reviewer sums up the novel thus:
What are we to think of it as a literary phenomenon? The conception, as I have said, is novel and even sublime. It is worked out with an audacity that does not shrink from blasphemy. The execution is vigorous – after the vigour of a tambour major. Its conspicuous quality is lack of restraint of any kind. To use a vulgar phrase, Marie Corelli lets herself go with a vengeance all over the shop. It is as if the book were printed in capitals, and illuminated from cover to cover with the most glaring colours of the pyrotechnic artist. She paints indeed, but it is with a brush the size of a bill-sticker's. But let no one despise it. It is the supreme example of a popular style; the zenith attained by the Penny Dreadfulesque in the last decade of the nineteenth century. (464)
All this said, I am sadly not able to answer why it took so long for the publishing industry to produce bestsellers. I remember thinking 1895 seemed to be rather late for such a thing to start. Other than very basic estimates – i.e. a general rise in literacy as education for all classes improved, and advancing technology allowing books to be printed in larger volume – I'll have to let an actual expert in this period explain. :)
Still, since I find Marie Corelli to be fascinating and woefully under-recognized, overshadowed by her contemporaries such as Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, I wanted to share a bit about her nonetheless.
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